r norman  wrote in
news:c8jevn$1666$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org: 

> On Thu, 20 May 2004 15:30:07 +0000 (UTC), Tim Tyler 
> wrote:

>>However, the revolution will come.  In the future many organisms will
>>have their heritable information stored not in DNA - but in databases
>>in the factories that produced them.

>>DNA will change roles from storer of heritable information to
>>messenger between the database and the phenotype.  The resulting mDNA
>>will thus follow RNA's route out of the mainstream of biology - and
>>into the periphery.
 
> Biological information storage and copying using DNA (or RNA) has been
> around for billions of years.  Human information storage using "hard
> copy" writing on tablets, papyri, manuscripts, and books has been
> around for thousands of years. There is no form of digital information
> storage that has lasted more than several decades.  One of the classic
> problems facing librarians and other professionals in the information
> storage and retrieval business is to find a method of information
> storage that is likely to still be available 50 or 100 or 500 years
> from now!  I have "archival quality" mylar punched
"paper" tape that
> is likely to last in perfect physical condition for millennia.
> Unfortunately, the tape is worthless because there are no punched
> paper tape readers available any more.  Similarly, my stacks of IBM
> cards, although made of heavy-duty paper and therefore are perishable,
> are still in excellent shape but are just as unusable as my 8-inch
> floppies. Even the recent 5-1/4" floppies are almost impossible to
> read and the 3-1/2" floppies are quickly becoming obsolete. How long
> do you think CD's or DVD's will last?  As long as 8-track tape?
 
> "Modern" methods may be more "effective" or more
"efficient" or
> "better".   But they certainly do have their drawbacks.  Maybe biology
> was extremely clever to stay with a system that works for such a long
> time!  Why do you think it would be "beneficial" to change, now?


The people at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, 
based on an article I read several years ago, tend to prefer stone 
tablets as the most viable long term storage medium among  the various 
technologies used by humans to store information :-)


Yours,

Bill Morse
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